Friday, May 27, 2016

As many of you noticed, up until a week or so ago we were away from our blog for quite a long time. The biggest reason was a new project (which I should have been writing about, but didn't)- a garden room.

We call it a garden room instead of a greenhouse because it is heated year round and is connected to our house. The room is heated with solar and wood. Our hopes are to incorporate solar heated water for heating next winter.

We are experimenting with tomatoes (which we enjoyed all of last winter....I know, I should have written), cucumbers, lettuce and greens and herbs. Oh..and we also had one squash plant last winter and got one squash.

The small piece of gutter pictured below has been planted with lettuce seeds. We plan on adding more gutters which we can suspend from the ceiling to gain more planting space.

Tomatoes are growing in hang baskets and large pots.

We put wire in front of the window for cucumbers to grow on. It is the first time we are trying cucumbers indoors. Next to the cucumbers is an avocado plant.

The goal is to grow as much as we possibly can during the winter to have fresh vegetables. I even put a few carrot seeds in a hanging basket.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Every once in a while we receive a product for free for an honest review. This week we received the Bar Brat Ice Ball Maker. I would not put a post on our blog about a product if I didn't honestly like how the product performs.

I will admit when we first opened the ice ball maker I was skeptical. It looked too small to really bother with for making ice. But after we made the ice we were quite happy. I like the fact that this seals well so we didn't have to worry about water spilling in the freezer (we have a small propane frig with a very small freezer, so things tend to get knocked around a bit). The ice also removed very easily ( the mold is made of 100% BPA- free silicone) and because of the large size of the ice balls we only needed one per drink.

Our drink of choice was our homemade rhubarb juice
I am also going to use the ice ball maker to freeze juice to add to drinks as well....some frozen pineapple juice in our seltzer water, maybe some frozen grape juice in the rhubarb juice. I think this would even be a fun way to freeze some fruit (inside an ice ball).

All this fruit talk is making my mouth water for summertime fruits! The grapes are budding and so are the apple trees. I have already started preserving some rhubarb and am looking for new recipes to try. One can never have too many rhubarb recipes!

Friday, May 13, 2016

This recipe has become one of our favorites. It is a recipe I got from my grandmother, and I have made a few changes to make it a little healthier. I have replaced the refined sugar with honey and maple syrup. We like this cobbler as a dessert, but even more for breakfast! It is good warm or cold.

Combine berries, flour and peel in a bowl. Combine well. Add the honey and stir in as well as possible. Pour into 8"x8" baking dish

In a medium bowl stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the flour mixture. Use a pastry blender, or your hands to work in the butter until the mixture resembles small peas. Add the milk and maple syrup and stir until the dough forms. Add a little more milk if necessary.

Drop the biscuit dough onto the berry mixture in globs. It is okay if the dough does not cover all of the berries.

About Us

Our philosophy is real nutrition, real food, not only in everything we grow and eat, but in
our recipes as well. For us, it’s not just about “organic;” it’s about “transcending organic.” We pride ourselves in farming diversified, practicing biodynamic farming, permaculture as well as common sense. Our farm has many aspects (orchards, grapes, bees, livestock) and each harmonizes with the other.
We live off the grid, getting our power from the sun and from the wind as well. We eat what we grow, grow what we eat and are in tuned with the natural world around us.
We’ve learned how to make do with less, and question what the “experts” tell us. We experiment with projects (solar, rain water, grazing) and ways to make our lives more comfortable without a big price tag or big carbon footprint.
We hope to share some of our ideas with you, our failures as well as successes, and to learn from you as well by sharing ideas.

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These books we have accumulated over many years; some at yard sales, some from book stores and some as gifts. They are invaluable to us. We put this list together at Amazon to make it easy for readers to view.
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